When the gray times come -- and they will come -- a morning at Cuban restaurant Pambiche in Northeast Portland will bring radiance, splendor and gladness to your day.

No other place in town greets you with its own splashes of tropical color on walls saturated in tomato red, sunshine gold, sea blue and jungle green. No other place enchants you with such an overload of visual dazzle: paintings of sugar cane, mangoes and papayas; images of a snazzy drummer straight out of the Buena Vista Social Club; dozens of congas and castanets; a menagerie of flamingos and macaws; and lazy fans stirring up mobiles of sea horses and Caribbean fish.

The chromatic onslaught continues on the plate, where each dish explodes in an array of colors across the spectrum. Cuban steak and eggs offers a basket of pastel-hued fresh fruit, the ebony and lemon of black beans and a bright egg yolk, the char of meat with the ruby of red onions, and the pale canary yellow of the wonderfully named fufu de platano (mashed plantains). A veritable painter's palette for your palate.

Breakfast and brunch offerings are identical here, so any day of your week can begin with a culinary fiesta. You're likely to stuff yourself at a sitting, but Pambiche's morning glory provides an easy arc right to dinner, so don't hold back.

Begin with a plunge into the selection of sweet breads, a steal at $5. The eight small pastries include lime papaya scones, coconut and ginger biscuits, and banana muffins, plenty to share. Another essential starter comes in a giant glass of either fresh pineapple and orange juice, or pineapple and sugar cane juice, the cane serving as a classy stirrer ($3). There's a lot of food to come, so I also suggest getting the platano, a spicy banana milk shake ($3.75) frothed to cumulous air, to wash down the ensuing banquet. There's also a strong Cuban coffee shake, a nice rendition of iced java for warmer days ahead.

Scanning the breakfast menu, itself a splash of color, can occupy considerable time; you may feel like Castro plotting strategy as he wrestled control from Batista. A careful working plan is imperative, since several items seem perfect for breakfast even though they don't show up on the Platos de Desayuno, or Breakfast Entree, side of the list.

I'm a fan of the frituras, or Cuban fritters, especially the corn version. Meant to be eaten out of hand, they are light, puffy and have just the right interior crunch ($4.50). In a similar vein, fried ripe plantains are tongues of crisp, burnished sweetness that go surprisingly well with hot sauce, especially if you want to cut some of the fruit's natural sugar ($6.75). Less cloying than bananas, plantains need to be cooked, and the cooks at Pambiche know just what to do with them.

The Oregonian/2005

The many egg dishes represent the heart of the order, and here's where you notice the differences between Cuban and American breakfasts. Naturally there's a preoccupation with moros y christianos, black beans and rice chunked with bits of roasted pork, far superior to the refried beans in so many Mexican joints. Many egg entrees are accompanied by tropical fruits; and chorizo, pimentos, croquettes and sofrito (a Cuban sauce of onions, garlic, tomatoes and peppers) all make their appearances on numerous plates. This is not a breakfast for the timid of heart or belly.

One of the best of these dishes is hash and eggs (try them poached, so they ooze into the ground beef). The hash has an unexpected sweetness, and hot sauce perks it up nicely, too. Since Cuban Creole food has roots in Spain as well as Africa, you'll find lots of sizzling spices in the cooking ($9). The steak and eggs ($12.50) is another super-hearty number, the sauteed onions a wonderful partner to the beef. I am less impressed with the scrambles; the eggs seem overcooked and in their hardness lose flavor.

The most unusual egg dish is the tortilla Cubana, a Cuban omelet that has nothing to do with taco shell preparations. Large domes of eggs first lightly scrambled and then slow-cooked for 14 minutes in the pan and flipped onto the serving plate, they take a number of fillings but always have deep fried potatoes folded into the beaten eggs, as well as garlic and peppers ($9.50-$11). I'm a fan of the Basque style, which features sausage, ham, mushroom and small peas. The insides of these tortillas tend to be runny, while the convex roofs rise to an attractive golden brown crispness. Buckminster Fuller would have loved this edible geodesic dome.

For another genre you could try the Cuban toast ($9) --think French toast sweet enough to alarm your dentist; the spiced sugar cane syrup is thick and wickedly cloying, the powdered sugar only adding to the sweet effect. Still, the dish is undeniably flavorful, the roasted almonds a fine touch.

Pambiche launches your waking hours with a difference. On a side wall a poster implores, "Revolutionize your morning!" You may or may not appreciate the implicit Castroization of your breakfast, but you can't deny that starting your day here is not quite like doing it at a pancake house.

Summing up:

Grade: B+

Cuisine and scene: Cuban breakfast specialties arrive on the plate in dazzling colors to match the tropical-hued walls of the small, homey space.